Arthur Francis Starrs Jr.

Arthur F. Starrs, Jr. (“Art/Artie”), 73, loving husband, father, uncle, brother, son, and “Poppy” passed away, surrounded by his children and wife of almost 48 years, Mary Beth, at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Hospital in Manhattan on December 12, 2021. Art was born in 1948, in New York City to the late Arthur and Margaret Starrs. Margaret and Arthur instilled in Art and his five brothers and sisters the importance of supporting each other, and he maintained a close relationship with them throughout his life.

He was raised in the Bronx and excelled as a student and an athlete from an early age. He starred as a basketball and tennis player at Fordham Prep and later Fordham University. The Jesuits molded Art, as they had his father, as “a man for others.” While serving as a graduate assistant basketball coach at Fordham Law school, he met the love of his life and the wellspring of his joy, Mary Beth Kostuk, of Freehold, NJ. Art received his J.D. from the University of Notre Dame school of Law in 1973 and soon after started his law career and his married life with Mary Beth in Chicago. His passion and ability for the law led to him excelling as an attorney for PepsiCo: first in New York and later, as General Counsel of Frito Lay in Dallas, where he lived with his family for 34 years. Travel and athletics were how Art most enjoyed creating memories with his family. Whether he was watching a Yankees game with his grandsons, traveling in Europe with his daughter, or on the golf course with his sons and friends, Art was constantly making memories with those whom he loved. Art was a man of many achievements as an athlete and attorney, but to him, they were only useful in so far as they exemplified to his children how faith, integrity, duty, and effort are the requisite ingredients to a meaningful life. To Art, his greatest accomplishments weren’t on the basketball court or in the court of law.

His true measures of accomplishment were his marriage to Mary Beth, the children they raised, and the grandchildren he doted on. Arthur is predeceased in death by Margaret and Arthur F. Starrs Surviving Arthur are his wife, Mary Beth Starrs; children Arthur F. Starrs III and wife (Elizabeth), Caitlin Bovo and husband (Robert); Brendan Starrs and fiancée Jaime Hanson; Dylan Starrs, and Connor Starrs and his wife (Rebecca). Cherished grandchildren are Margaret and Arthur F. Starrs IV; Matthew, Tessa, and Grace Bovo; and Rutledge Starrs. He is also survived by siblings Margaret Guiry Kilray, John Starrs, Eileen Kelly, William Starrs, and Kathleen Maguire, many nieces, nephews, Godchildren, and many, many, friends.

In lieu of flowers donations to Fordham Prep in Arthur's name would be greatly appreciated. Please visit http://www.fordhamprep.org/giving/1965.

A funeral Mass will be held at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Manhattan on Thursday Dec. 16 at 10:30 a.m.